Restrictions on open fires outside city limits include trash fires, but barbecues still are allowed.

Residents can incinerate household trash in barrels with metal wire-mesh screens to control sparks.

No last-minute restrictions were ordered for New Year's fireworks, which are on sale through Tuesday. However, County Judge Nelson Wolff will consider Sunday whether to issue a 60-hour emergency declaration.

On Thursday, a major fireworks vendor announced it is voluntarily pulling missiles with fins and rockets with sticks from its shelves.

Officials are asking the county's other four major vendors to follow Alamo Fireworks' lead, which would make an emergency declaration unnecessary.

“That would be a major relief, because what goes up and gets caught by wind, you can't control,” Fire Marshal Craig Roberts said. “That's where the problem is.”

He emphasized that discharging fireworks in San Antonio or other cities is illegal. Deputy fire marshals and sheriff's deputies will be watching for infractions Sunday and especially Monday, he said.

The scale used to assess fireworks danger still is in the safe zone, but officials urged residents to use caution and common sense.

“Everybody needs to be careful,” Wolff said.

Roberts said illegal private fireworks shows in San Antonio have become notorious. Displays that have been held in the Marbach Road-Loop 1604 area “rival” the city's official show at HemisFair, he said.

“Some of us have a hard time even breathing out there,” Roberts said.

The burn ban was approved after Roberts recounted several recent brush fires, including a 350-acre Christmas Day blaze in Converse that closed parts of Loop 1604.

The fires, one of which was caused by a resident burning trash, were fueled by brisk winds and dry vegetation. No structures were lost, but crops were damaged.

“These conditions aren't going to change until we get some significant rain,” Roberts said.